The Hearing and Speech Clinic at Children's Mercy provides extraordinary care for diagnostics, early intervention, short-term treatment, teaching, and research. We are dedicated to giving exceptional care through the latest evidence-based practices and procedures, supported by state-of-the-art technology.

Audiology

The Audiology Program is part of the Hearing and Speech Clinic at Children's Mercy.

Audiology is a part of science that works with hearing, balance and related problems. Audiologists are health care workers who diagnose, manage and treat hearing problems.

Speech-language pathology

The Hearing and Speech Clinic at Children's Mercy provides evaluations, consultations, parent counseling and therapies for children with communication or feeding/swallowing disorders.

A care plan is created based on the evaluation. Parents are asked to observe therapy sessions to learn how to help their children practice at home.

Does my child need a referral?

Many insurance plans need a physician's referral. Keep in mind that state programs and Medicaid plans must approve a child's outpatient visits.

The Hearing and Speech Clinic does not require a referral to see a child, unless the child's insurance company requires the child to have one. It is important for a family to check their insurance coverage.

Rhyming to Reading: a phonological awareness and early literacy program

Rhyming to Reading is a program designed to teach young children, ages 4-6, early literacy skills such as rhyming, print awareness, the sounds letters make and how to sound out words.

Rhyming to Reading classes are taught at Children's Mercy where parents have the opportunity to watch and learn how to do pre-reading activities at home.

The Rhyming to Reading curriculum is available to purchase in a DVD format for teachers, speech-language pathologists and parents.

Speech and language

Speech-language pathologists at the Hearing and Speech Clinic do many evaluations, including:

Speech and language evaluation (an audiologist also does a hearing evaluation at this time)

Chronic cough/paradoxic vocal cord dysfunction evaluation

Reading/dyslexia evaluation

Services Provided

Speech Evaluations

Speech Therapy

Conditions

Academic language disorders

Apraxia of speech

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD)

Cognitive disorders

Developmental delay

Dyslexia

Fluency disorders (stuttering)

Hearing loss

Language disorders (expressive, pragmatic, receptive)

Orofacial myofunctional disorders

Pediatric head trauma or neurological injuries

Resonance and those associated with cleft palate or velopharyngeal dysfunction

Swallowing

Voice disorders

Hearing and speech staff

We have a world-class staff and all audiologists and speech-language pathologists have a master's degree, a doctorate or a Ph.D. in their respective fields. They hold a Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) in audiology or speech-language pathology, which is granted by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Audiology staff

Audiology is a part of science that works with hearing, balance and related problems. Audiologists are health care workers who diagnose, manage and treat hearing problems.

Speech-language pathology staff

Speech-language pathologists help children develop communication skills and work with problems with speech, language, cognitive-communication, voice, swallowing and fluency. They are commonly referred to as speech pathologists.